Snow and Gloves
by MudbludGranger
Summary: It's been a long day in the cold and the snow, jacketed and walking glove in glove through the streets. The Doctor pulls off his gloves after a long day, and Clara wants to keep them.


The day had been long, and even by Timelord biology, cold. The Doctor and Clara had spent the day on a planet they'd read about in a book, a funny little book, full of funny little stories. The planet was one in a distant solar system like a second Earth, humans lived there, and the birds were lobsters and shrimp. On the planet it was cold and snowy every single day, but coldest and snowiest and Christmas, and that is where they went.

Everywhere there were people in bundles of up to three thick coats. Children played in the streets, so wrapped up they could barely bend to scoop snow to make a snow ball. An old man dressed in furs stood by a shrine of some "Clarissa" in the middle of the street, and even on that he lay an old, woollen jacket.

The Doctor and Clara bundled up well to stroll down the cold and icy streets, glove in glove, side by side. They looked like a pair of eskimos – no different to anyone else, then. Even beneath their layers they shivered and were glad to get inside some large guest centre, recently built, just a year old, with fantastic heating. The drinks served there by an old man named Albus – the same old man from the shrine – were chocolaty and warm. Albus made small talk, telling them it was Christmas of 2014, not surprized that they had no idea of the date, he'd known a man since he was a little boy who time travelled, he'd travelled in time too. He had met the twenty one year old version of dame Maggie Smith and taken snow balls from home to throw at Cleopatra's pyramid; on this Earth-like and cold planet, people were far more open about such things and visits from aliens and such happened regularly. In fact, just last Christmas a giant flying space ship piloted by a crew, a doctor and a nurse had crash landed in one of their fields.

Back outside the cold ate through the pair again as they set off to see the sites the old man Albus had recommended. Rubbing their gloved hands together to keep warm they touched the sacred ice chamber of a girl not long dead, bowing their heads against the wind the visited the remains of an old system that put the version of Britain on this planet through hell for years. They ran into other time travellers at the visitors centre and made idle chit-chat, exchanging stories. The couple they met were on a nostalgic trip – they had some connection to the dead girl who had died last Christmas. For them it had been over one hundred years. The pair had asked how long The Doctor and Clara had been married; they hastily corrected the pair and shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. The other time travellers had left not long after that, claiming, "You just can't leave a baby with Rooney for more than two hours – he can't even tell the difference between fire and red hair, let alone a baby from anything else."

The Doctor and Clara had stayed a little longer having wandered into the museum section of the place. They looked at fine paintings of the birds flying through the trees – it looked weird. One of the pictures was a crab perched on the branch of a naked, snow covered tree, claws shielding its face from falling snow. Some paintings showed famous people and their pet birds; fish in cages, plankton in cages, starfish in chambers and a dolphin in a leash.

Come night fall people were gathering in the street, led by Albus, the time travellers from earlier and two others. The large group sang Christmas songs, songs of Earth, the ones nearest to the shrine of the dead woman all wore white gowns and no coats despite the freezing cold, and they all wore, as The Doctor was excited and surprized to see, fezes. He asked a woman at the back of the crowd about it and she explained – Albus and the dead girl wore them every Christmas for eleven years. No one knew why. But the woman, Tasha Sohcahtoa, a time traveller, said it was because they so often went to Egypt on Christmas, with a man who had a strong dislike for festive hats.

After joining in a few of the songs, The Doctor and Clara trudged back to the TARDIS beneath the stars and through the heavy snow. Shedding their layers quickly they threw the coats down on the floor, and after a long, cold day The Doctor was glad to free his hands as he pulled off the old gloves and tossed them down on the console.

"Well, was it worth it?" The Doctor asked Clara, as she moved slowly to stand beside him, her fingers lingering on the console edge.

"Yeah," said Clara absently as her fingers strayed to his discarded gloves. She picked them up. "Can I have these?"

"Go ahead," The Doctor shrugged, flicking a few switches to properly heat up the TARDIS. "How about I find us a room with a couch, a television, and a big fire?"

Clara shrugged, pulling on the gloves and looking at them on her hands. As The Doctor bent to pick up their damp coats, she pressed her gloved hands to her face, as if embracing them. The Doctor stood up and watched her for a moment with his eyebrows raised. She hastily dropped her hands and looked the other way, pulling off the gloves and stuffing them into her pocket. When she looked back at The Doctor he was smiling, not his usual, boyish, excited smile, but a contented, soft, warm and loving smile, which she returned.

The Doctor held out a hand and Clara took it, hugging up against his arm as they walked into the TARDIS halls, ready for a cosy, cuddly, yet entirely platonic night together, almost as if the TARDIS were a big, warm house to call home.

**A/N: Soooo anyway … Clara's got gloves on in the fiftieth trailer, this is just an idea of how she got them and why she's wearing them … the other planet thing isn't relevant of course, I got carried away, but can't you just imagine The Doctor getting back on after a long day somewhere cold, pulling off his gloves and Clara sort of holding them to her face before the mooch off and be cute together …? Well if you can't I can so SHUSH :3 **


End file.
